Pouch or container



May 1, 1928.

J. PETERSON Poucn on CONTAINER Filed June as, 1925 Patented May 1, 1928.

UNITED STATES i 1,667,869 PATENT OFFICE.

JONATHAN PETERSON, OF BROOKLYN, HEVT YORK, ASSIGNOR TO COMBINATION MACHINE COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

POUCH OR CONTAINER.

Application filed June 26, 1925.

This application is a Continuation of my prior application, Ser. No. 14,689, filed March 11 1925, with additions and improvements.

The invention relates to a container or pouch which may be made of inexpensive material, such paper, and is especially Well adapted for pocket carrying by users of tobacco and other commodities.

The container is so designed that it completely encloses a commodity, which is preferably arrangedin substantially rectangular form, andusually relatively thin and flat. One side or face of the container is arranged as a movable closure, consisting of a neck which includes a rear and a front portion, these portions being sometimes referred to flaps, with connected end portions, the neck being arranged to fold compactly and flatly down on a major face of the commodity, with the front and rear flaps completely covering the folded neck structure, and also arranged so that when the rear flap is raised the neck is extended or elevated to open position, to protect and prevent accidental displacement or loss of portions of the commodity.

Portions of the neck structure are creased so that the closure practically automatically refolds into closed position, and the container is therefore well adapted to repeated handling, opening and closing, as in the case of the pocket carrying of cigarettes, sliced plug tobacco,'or other commodities of which it is desired to remove one-portion at a time.

A further-important feature of the invention is the arrangement of the container material to include an extension of the rear outer closure flap, which is normally inturned, and presents suitable advertising matter or other insignia, when the container is opened, and this result is attained when the original sheet or blank constituting the container is printed on only one side, as further explained hereafter. The flap extension also increases the mechanical strength of the closure flap, and has other advantages, as explained below.

Another improvement consists in shaping the rear closure flap and the extension thereof adjacent to their folding line to produce a tongue formation readily .insertible under the front closure flap, which is also shaped, together with adjacent wrapper parts, to form a pocket in which the tongue can be Serial No. 39,680.

easily insertedto complete the closure of the package, and easily removed and repeatedly replaced when portions of'the enclosed com- .modity are removed for use.

The characteristics and advantages of the inventionare further sufliciently explained in connection with the following detail description of the accompanying drawing, which shows one representative embodiment of the invention. After considering this embodiment, persons skilled in the art will understand that many variations may be made within the principles of the invention, and I contemplate the employment of any structures that are properly within the scopeof the appended claims. i I

Fig. l is a perspective view of a sheet of paper or analogous material, cut, imprinted and creased, and ready for folding and se curing in pouch or container form.

Fig. 2 shows the reverse face of the blank.

able amount of folding and unfolding without breaking or tearing. The blank is usually substantially cruciform, consisting of a main or bottom portion 1, a flap 2, designated as a front flap with reference to its relative position in the completed pouch, end flaps 3 and a rear flap 4, which in preferred caseshas an extension 5. The blank may be creased or scored to facilitate subsequent folding, or in some cases the folds may be formed without previous creasing or scor ing in the formation of the blank into container form. Various lines are indicated in dots-and-dashes on the blank, these corresponding to fold lines and may be considered as creases or score lines, or merely as lines indicating adjoining blank sections or folds subsequently to be made. Thus, dot-anddash lines 6 and 7, indicate the junctures of the front and rear flaps 2 and l and the body section 1 respectively, and lines 8 indicate the junctures of end flaps 3 and the body section. Line 9 indicates the fold line between the rear flap 4c and its extension 5.

The front, rear and end flaps usually consist of two main parts indicated by fold lines. Thus, the front flap has an inner section 10 and an outer section 11, defined by the fold line 12, the rear flap has an inner section 13 and an outer section 1%, defined by the fold line 15, and the end flaps have inner sections 16 and outer sections 17, defined by the fold lines 18. The inner flap sections 10, 13 and 16 correspond to vertical walls of the completed container, while the other flap sections 11, 14 and 17 correspond to parts of the closure formation.

The end flaps are additionally provided or formed with fastening flaps 20 defined by fold lines 21, and for the proper formation and reinforcement of the container corners, corner flaps 22 are provided, and the blank is slit along the lines 23 to separate the corner flaps from adjacent portions of the fastening flaps 20.

The outer end flap sections 17 are desirably additionally creased along the diagonal lines 25 to facilitate the formation of tuck or bellows folds, as later described.

The blank is usually embossed or imprinted with suitable adrertising matter or other insignia, A and B, portions of this insignia usually appearing on several or all of the blank portions. For economic reasons the printing is usually done only on one surface of the blank. Thus, the several imprints A are made only on portions of the blank surface which will later become outer surfaces of the container, and the imprint B is made on the flap extension 5 and on the same surface of the blank as the other imprints; but the flap 5 is folded. along the line 9 0 that the imprint B will appear in the proper position on an inner surface of the completed container when opened, as explained hereafter.

To secure the various blank portions together it is usually desirable to apply adhesive in a particular fashion, either while the blankisin flat form orin different stages of its shaping into container form. The adhesively coated areas desirably include those shown in 2, which re n-resents the reverse side of the blank. and the adhesive arrangement is such that all of it maybe placed on one surface of the blank, thus avoiding difficulties involved in applying adhesive to different blank surfaces. The adhesive areas include stripes 30, extending along inner portions of the front and rear flap sections 13 and the aligned fastening flaps 20, to the ends of the latter; another stripe 31 on an inner portion of the outer rear flap section 14, and triangular zones or areas 32 on the inner end flap sections 16 corresponding to the positions of the corner flaps 22 when the blank is folded.

In some cases the blank may be folded about an inner or embryo package, or a commodity, during the production of a complete package consisting of the commodity or inner package and the poucli-container. Otherwise, the blank may be folded and secured in complete pouch form and the commodity then placed therein.

In Figs. and l, C sufficiently designates a representative coimnmlity which may be almost any article or inner package. .lly way of example, it may be assumed that the connnodity C is a group of cigarettes arranged in flat row formation and enclosed in a wrapper of paper, foil, or composition foil and paper, as usual in cigarette packages. In this particular ermmple the blank S. Fig. i, has been dimcmioncd in accordance with the dimensiom: of the commodity or inner package C.

The blank is now folded by either of the methods above indicated, in in any other suitable way, along the fold lines indicated in Fig. 1, producing the complete pouch or container P, Fig. il, which is left in open condition to receive the commodity C if the connnodity has not already been placed in proper position during the formation of the pouch. The corner members 2". have been folded in, while the front and rear flaps it and 4- and the end flaps I have been folded up vertically in relation to the bottom section 1, and the fastening {laps 20 with the end flaps overlying the outer faces of the corner flaps 22, and the fastening flaps '20 have been folded over on adjacent margins of the front and rear flaps respectively. The glued areas indicated in Fig. .2, secure the blank portions together in box form in a manner which will be obv ous by com Jarison of l igs. 2 and 3. The corner flaps 22 reinforce the vertical edges of the corners of the container adjacent the corre sponding corners and edges of the contents or inner package (1, and thus provide very substantial strength and security against tearing at these points, where ordinary paper wrappers or envelopes are most subject to tearing or breaking.

The container is thus retained in substantially hox form, including the neck cud N, which consists of the outer sections 11, l-t and 17 of the front, rear and end flaps. and with a portion of the outer section it of the rear flap 1 extending above the main contour of the neck. \Vhen the [lap extension 5 is provided (as is preferred) it is folded along the line i), Fig. 1, so that it lies flat against the inner surface of flap section hi, and the ins gnia ll upon extension 5, which was originally on the outer surface of the blank, is now presented on an inner surface of the pouch closure, so that it necessarily lUt ltfl

lSt

will he observed bytheuser every time he opens the container. The extension also mechanically reinforces flap section 14 and especially the free edge 9 thereof, this corresponding to the fold l'ne 9 of the blanln The edge 9 is the front edge of the complete rear flap or closure member, and is the exposed edge Whenever the container is opened, and is subjected to the greatest amount of handling and wear in manipulating the package.

Although not necessary inv all cases, the extension flap 5 may be adhesively secured to the inner face of flap section 4 and this is sufliciently provided for by the stripe of adhesive 31 provided on the blank and previously referred to.

The portions of the adhesive stripes 80 which lie on the front and rear flap portions 18 are useful for adhesively securing to the container or outer wrapper portions of an inner wrappersurrounding the commodity C when such an inner wrapper is provided, and thus to retain the inner wrapper and commodity within the container; but if it is not desired to so secure the inner wrapper, or if a wrapper is not provided these portions of the adhesive stripes may be omitted.

In some cases the complete rear flap consisting of the portion 4 and the infolded extension portion 5 may be folded down on top of the rest of the neck end overlying the folded end formations and a portion of the front flap ll so as to form an outer closure or cover for practically the entire top area of the package. But preferably, as in the present specific embodiment of the invention, provision is made for inserting the upper or forward portion of the complete rear flap under the front flap 11 to form a more secure and readily manipulated closure fastening. For this purpose portions of the adjacent flap sections 4 and 5 are cut out of the blank, Fig. 1, along the curved lines 40, the apices 41 of these curvatures being located on the fold line 9. Therefore, when the flap extension 5 is folded over, as above described, the complete rear flap, as clearly shown in Figs. 3 and 4, has the rounded or tapered front corners forming a tongue. Desirably, also the complete rear flap is creased along line 42 to facilitate bending of this flap when it is inserted under the front flap or the front flap portion 11.

The free edge 43 of the front flap section if is also cut or arranged in relation to the rounded corners 44 of fastening flaps 20, so as to producea formation or pocket edge well adapted to receive the tongue.

The commodity being in proper position, the closure is practically automatically folded to closed position by bending the outer closure flap section 14 forward, whereupon the end portions of the neck collapse or fold inward along the lines 25. Fig. 4 shows the closure partly vmoved toward closed position. Triangular portions of the outer end flap sections 17 constitute tongues or flaps 50, which overlie the commodity C, and other triangular portions 51 fold down upon flaps 50. The tongue forming the outward portion of the complete rear flap is bent down somewhat along the line 42, and the free edge 9 is inserted under the edge 43 of the front flap 11 (Fig. 6) and the tongue is pushed in until the front and rear flaps lie flat and smooth upon the top .face of the package. (Figs. 5 and 7). Insertion of the tongue under the front flap 11 or in the pocket provided between that flap and the end fold formations'51, is facilitated by the formation of the edge 43 and the adjacent rounded corners 44, and the curved or tapered corners 40 of the tongue, above referred to. The package may then be secured in closed position, if this is considered necessary, in any convenient way; for instance, in the case of tobacco products, it is conveniently sealed by the usual revenue stamp (not shown).

The container may be opened and closed any number of times in an obvious way, without particular care or attention on the part of the user, since the described closure and fold formations produce nearly automatic operation of the closure members. When the container is open the upstanding neck, of substantial depth, effectively protects the package contents, and prevents accidental displacement or spilling of portions thereof, and at the same time the opening is full and free and permits ready removal of any item or portion of the contents. The container is therefore especially well adapted for pocket use by consumers of tobacco and a great variety of other commodities.

I claim 1. A container of sheet material folded and secured in approximately box form, and including a neck which in open position extends substantially above an enclosed commodity, opposite members of the neckbeing creased for folding flat upon a major surface of the commodity, and other opposite members of the neck constituting front and rear closure flaps, the rear flap having a portion extending above the main neck contour and forming a tongue with tapered end portions, and the front closure flap having a recessed edge formation to facilitate the insertion of the tongue under the front closure flap to form a flat, readily openable and replaceable closure, the rear closure flap hav-;

ing an extension flap infolded against an inner surface of the main flap and providing a reenforced free edge at the fold line.

2. A container for commodities formed from a wrapper shaped to enable it to be each other with said parts beneath, one of the side walls being extended above the end walls and of a width to lap upon the folded top of the other side wall, said extension being: adapted to be tucked between the last named side wall and the adjacent folds of the end walls whereby the wrapper will be self-held in wrapped position.

Signed at 1107 Broadway in the county of New York and State of New York this 25th day of Jane A. D. 1925.

JONATHA N PETERSt )N. 

